Tell all the Truth but tell it slant

Let's open this investigation into how to (mis)understand literature with a look at a lovely and readable poem by Emily Dickinson, called by its first line: "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant".

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant --
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind --

In Short

At first glance, the first stanza may seem to indicate that you can get ahead in life by telling things not quite how they really are. But I think that this isn't quite right. It says that "The Truth's superb surprise" is "Too bright for our infirm Delight", and the second stanza elaborates "The Truth must dazzle gradually / Or every man be blind --".

The poem, then, isn't encouraging us to be economical with the truth for the sake of personal gain--it's indicating that if we want to communicate the truth, we've got to do it in such a way that people will be willing and able to understand it.

More Detail

Telling the truth slant might be written in more modern terms as "putting a slant on the story"--that thing spin doctors do. The "success" Dickinson writes about must be successful communication. Dickinson is a bit elitist here, assuming that if people are just told the truth straight up, they won't understand it.

The second stanza reinforces this feeling of elitism: Dickinson indicates that people are like children, who must have the Truth of matters "eased" to them "gradually" with "explanation kind".

Maybe more like this...

Tell all the Truth but not too soon --

First tell some little lies

Too bright for our dim audience

The Truth would sear their eyes

The Thunder is the Gods at play

A-bowling in the skies

The peasants will learn all the Truth

Though it take a few tries!